Ymna is a creative and dedicated female choir that performs their music with a unique sound and sensitivity to both tradition and our time. The repertoire is wide, but with a focus on Nordic folk music and on compositions by women from early renaissance to present day.
Over the years, the choir’s desire to both move, enlighten and give the music a context, has led to many inspiring collaborations and important projects. Some examples are recordings of Christmas music from West Sweden found in archives, the first performance of a scenic choral work about menopause, recordings of folk music by women (both from archives and present), and a concert that weaves together music by female composers from the 12th century to today with percussion, Kurdish songs and with lyrics about refugees and humanity.
Ymna has given a large number of concerts, in Sweden and abroad (eg. France, Poland, Germany, Lithuania and Italy), and made numerous close collaborations with different musicians as well as with actors, directors, composers, artists and dancers.
Five records has been recorded by Ymna so far. The two latest (Allt för vår ljusa stjärna, 2016 and Med lust och fägring stor, 2018) are available on Spotify and iTunes, and they can also be bought as CD via Naxos Direct (here and here).
The name Ymna is ancient Nordic for ”anthem”.
Conductor: Johanna Thür
Johanna Thür is a creative and driven choir leader who mainly works with Nordic folk music in choir.
The women’s choir Ymna, which she founded just over twenty years ago, has come to be her primary vocal instrument. She continuously writes new arrangements for the ensemble over folk corals, songs and folk dance music (of which some are published by Bo Ejeby förlag).
Johanna Thür has studied at the Academy of Music and Drama at the University of Gothenburg and at Consérvatoire Superieure de Paris, among others. She is today an organist, cembalist and choir leader, and is also an appreciated course leader with her own arrangements as a starting point.
In 2018, she was awarded the Medeleine Uggla scholarship for her work with Ymna and translating the way of how folk music is sung into choir music.